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IRS Hobby Loss Regulation – Goofy Says Judge And I Agree
Originally published on Forbes.com. Having a judge refer to an IRS regulation as "goofy" is not a good thing. Fortunately, it has only happened once and not that long...
Tax Advisers Are Too Afraid Of The Hobby Loss Rules
Section 183 was enacted as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1969. Regulations were issued in 1972. They are mostly unchanged. One of the earlier people to run up against Section 183 was Maurice Dreicer. In 1979, the Tax Court upheld deficiencies totaling $30,000 for 1972 and 1973. (You could call that $180,000 in today’s dollars).
Mr. Dreicer’s “business” was traveling around the world and going to fine restaurants which would endeavor to serve him the”perfect steak”. He was planning a book titled My 27 Year Search for the Perfect Steak — Still Looking. He was already a published author with The Diner’s Companion.
Although it ended up not doing him any good Dreicer’s winning appeal to the DC Circuit set an important precedent.
We perceive no basis for disturbing the Tax Court’s finding on the nature of the undertakings generating the losses for which deductions are sought. We do not accept, however, the legal test that the court employed in ruling on deductibility. We hold that a taxpayer engages in an activity for profit, within the meaning of Section 183 and the implementing regulations, when profit is actually and honestly his objective though the prospect of achieving it may seem dim . Because the Tax Court applied a different standard, we reverse and remand for redetermination of Dreicer’s deduction claims. (Emphasis added)
Denial Of $33M Deduction That Yielded $2M To University Of Michigan Upheld On Appeal
The Tax Court went with zero deduction, but not based on the sham theory. On its own, the Tax Court came up with failure to substantiate based on that missing number on Form 8283. There is something really satisfying with that result. All these smart people with complicated math stuff planning the deal and attacking it and the Tax Court blows it up with what would be a review comment that a senior accountant with three years experience would have given an associate. RTI. (Read the instructions).
Don’t Try To Create Tax Basis With Journal Entries
The lesson is a discouraging one for accountants. I went digging in PACER and found the schedule that Meruelo’s accountant prepared and they are really good work. A good bit of effort must have gone into them. But they end up meaning nothing.
Those of us who think in double entry might believe that Meruelo should have gotten his basis and been allowed the loss. Throughout most of my career, I would have thought there was no problem. But years of reading decisions like this have caused me to conclude that the only people impressed by an accountant’s entries are other accountants .
Reilly’s Fourth Law of Tax Planning – Execution isn’t everything, but it’s a lot. Here we have an exception. Execution actually was everything. If the money that Meruelo purportedly loaned to Merco had actually passed through his hands and been recorded as a loan or a distribution to him, he would have had his basis and his loss
Reflections On Technology – By Michael Schaffner
One of the great benefits of the Civil War Sesquicentennial was some of the people I met. One of them was Michael Schaffner whom I met at the penultimate event the...
Malware Attack Paralyzes Tax Businesses Throughout The Country
On a more serious note, I think we should reflect a little on how vulnerable we have made ourselves from overreliance on technology. When I was a hotel night auditor, the monstrous bookkeeping machine I wrestled with had a hand crank back-up so I could work it without electricity. It never came up, but with a flashlight, I would be able to have the bills ready at checkout time during a power failure.
The military is taking this problem very seriously. Naval officers are now being trained in how to do celestial navigation. It had become passe in the nineties, but fears about the vulnerability of GPS to either hacking or actually shooting down the satellites now makes it a thing. Having a carrier battle group not be able to figure out where it is is much scarier than having a bunch of tax accountants not able to do returns. Even if it means somebody will not make his charge hour bonus.
Tax Court Judge Considers Passing On Deductions Unbusinesslike
And it was quite a yacht. The Triumphant Lady was purchased in 2001 for $4,950,000. In 2006 a refit was started which ended up costing $10,839,000 by the time it was finished in 2009. The Lady had a full-time crew under the command of Captain Bryan Pridgeon. It was used personally by the Steiners until 2009.
Warren’s 7% Solution: Privatization Of Corporate Tax Measurement
There is a very interesting proposal kind of buried in the Real Corporate Profits Tax. The notion is that at least with respect to RCPT, the definition of income would be significantly insulated from the political process. I did not see anything in the Warren material that indicated that it is FASB that should determine the measure of taxable income, but that is the effect.
I actually think that a case might be made for a system that worked like that. It could shrink the Internal Revenue Code substantially. It would preclude using the Tax Code as an instrument of social policy, which I think many of us think would be a good thing.
Cautionary Tax Tale For Consultants With Long Term Gigs
It does make me reflect on how he might have done better. Overall, I think he should have boosted the substance of his overall business. In principle, it should not matter, but I suspect he would have done better as an S corporation. Saving some money on the SE tax, might have offset any additional cost. The 1120S would have been small potatoes and his individual return would have been more mundane.
Filing three Schedule Cs was probably a bad idea, as I noted. And he should have made a stronger case that his home near Atlanta was actually the hub of his business. Since his agreement with AFR was terminable on short notice, it is hard to see what purpose it served him, but it might have been meant to address concerns about him being treated as an employee.
National Accounting Firm Launches Cannabis Practice
He also indicated that there is a bit of a feel of the dot.com boom about the excitement that is being generated. The difference he sees is that the companies have real products and revenue models. I remember that before they called it the dot.com boom, it was called the New Economy, where things like profits and cash flow no longer mattered. Apparently, that is not what is going on in the cannabis boom. Just watch out that they don’t start growing tulips.